Description of the flag

Based on the British Blue Ensign, the New
Zealand flag consists of the Union Flag in the upper hoist position, and the
Southern Cross represented by four five-pointed stars in the fly.

Construction Sheet

image
by Sam Lockton and António Martins, 22 June 2005

The stars on the NZ flag are not a "true" cross, they fall at the
relative positions of the stars Acrux, Mimosa, Gacrux and delta Crucis, and
as such the "crossbar" doesn’t intersect the upright at 90 degrees.James Dignan, 30 August 1999

The centres of the stars forming the long limb of the cross shall
be on a vertical line on the fly, midway between the Union Jack and the outer
edge of the fly, and equidistant from its upper and lower edges; and the distance
apart of the centres of the stars shall be equal to thirty-six sixtieths the
hoist of the ensign.

The centres of the stars forming the short limb of the cross shall be on
a line intersecting the vertical limb at an angle of 82 therewith, and rising
from near the lower fly corner of the Union Jack towards the upper fly corner
of the ensign, its point of intersection with the vertical line being distant
from the centre of the uppermost star of the cross twelve-sixtieths of the
hoist of the ensign. The distance of the centre of the star nearest the outer
edge of the fly from the point of intersection shall be equal to twelve-sixtieths
of the hoist of the ensign, and the distance of the centre of the star nearest
the Union Jack from the point of intersection shall be equal to fourteen-sixtieths
of the hoist of the ensign.

The star nearest the fly edge of the ensign shall measure five-sixtieths,
the star at the top of the cross and that nearest to the Union Jack shall
each measure six-sixtieths, and the star at the bottom of the cross shall
measure seven-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign across their respective
red points, and the width of the white borders to the several stars shall
in all cases be equal to one one-hundred-and-twentieth of the hoist of the
ensign.

In ‘The New Zealand Ensign’, produced by the Historical Publications Branch
of the Department of Internal Affairs, 1965, W.A.Glue wrote, “Twelve preferred
the flag already used by the Church Missionary Society at the Bay of Islands”
and then added this footnote:“Some writers have claimed that the four stars
represented the Southern Cross. James Laurenson, an industrious and painstaking
researcher, does not accept this: ‘A lot has been written that out early New
Zealand flag had the Southern Cross Stars. That is wrong. They were the stars of
England, heraldic and religious stars, and each point has a deep meaning.’
Letter dated 25 July 1940 (rough copy – punctuation has been added).”
David Prothero, 18 October 2012

Traditionally the New Zealand flag was specified as "Navy Blue" and
this would correspond to PMS 281 or PMS 282. However, I note that the French Pavillons Album states the shade of blue to be PMS 287 - a lighter shade than
PMS 280. My personal observations have been that normally, a well produced New
Zealand flag has the same shade of blue colour as an Australian flag, or if
there is a difference the New Zealand blue is typically darker than the
Australian blue.

The 1989 edition of BR20 "Flags of all Nations" Change 5
defined "Navy Blue" as PMS 282C and "Royal Blue" as PMS 280C. I note that Graham
Bartram's "British Flags and Emblems" defines the Union Jack blue as PMS280.Ralph Kelly, 18 October 2010

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags
and Anthems Manual London 2012) provides recommendations for national flag
designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for
their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm
version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the
official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC
believed the flag to be. For New Zealand, PMS 186 red, 280 blue. The
vertical flag is the horizontal version reversed and turned 90 degrees
anti-clockwiseIan Sumner, 11 October 2012